New Acquisition: CRIMES WITHOUT HONOUR

Cinema Politica is proud to announce that we have acquired the rights to screen Raymonde Provencher’s CRIMES WITHOUT HONOUR throughout our network.

Provencher frames his somber and thoughtful indictment of honour-based violence in immigrant communities in Canada, Sweden, and Germany around the activist work undertaken by local women’s shelters and community groups. CRIMES WITHOUT HONOUR depicts the inevitable conflict between traditional values and the new home country’s laws in terms of cultural assimilation, immigration policy, and the visibility of misogyny. In many of the film’s case studies, family honour is intertwined with communal and spiritual values that many first-generation immigrants cherish as links to their former home.

The interviews with honour-based violence survivors describe the provocation for their attack and the perpetrator, who is often a member of the target’s immediate family, and often detail their processes of recovery and escape. Many instances of honour-based violence go unreported or are misunderstood by local law enforcement, and so the courage of these interviewees to reveal their stories is palpable and commendable. Some interviews with shelter staff and activists reveal details about honour killings, wherein anything from wearing a revealing garment to pursuing romances outside of the family’s community becomes excuse to murder one’s sister, wife, or daughter. Although the film primary addresses the physical violence inflicted on women by their family members, Provencher also examines the psychological pressures and tortures inflicted on young men to perpetuate the cycle of honour-based violence within their communities.

This brave and provocative Canadian film invites a wide range of activist collaborations to the debate on the relationship between spirituality and misogyny, the visibility of domestic violence, and the fluctuations of cultural practices amidst the immigration system. We anticipate that CRIMES WITHOUT HONOUR will become very popular throughout the Cinema Politica network.

Cinema Politica is the largest campus and community based documentary screening network in the world. We are a Montreal-based non-profit media arts organization dedicated to the dissemination of independent political works by Canadian and international filmmakers.